Complaints against hospital trust rise

Complaints against Dudley Group hospital trust rise

COMPLAINTS against the trust which runs Dudley's Russell Hall Hospital have risen by a over a third in three months.

A report to the board of the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust shows it received 163 complaints during April to June, up from 122 in January to March.

The 33.6 per cent increase is a blow for the trust which oversees Russell Hall Hospital which is at the centre of an independent inquiry over the deaths of 54 patients in a six-month period.

The report shows the majority of complaints were within the areas of clinical treatment with 113 received, followed by communications problems at 73, staff behaviour with 46, general medicine 31 and patient care - including nutrition and hydration – which had 25 criticisms.

But the report also shows objections were dwarfed by 1,534 compliments during April and June and amounted to only 0.6 per cent of the 240,030 clinical patients seen during the same period.

Diane Wake, chief executive of the trust, said it took all complaints seriously and overall positive responses by patients were increasing.

She said: "We proactively encourage patient feedback and actively use the complaints received to further improve our services for patients.

“As a trust we are seeing an increase in feedback overall, and indeed complaints are falling as a percentage of this overall feedback, although the number of complaints has risen.

“We received just over 64,500 pieces of feedback from patients over 2017/18 and are on target for more than 70,000 in 2018/19.

“Our Q2 feedback was 77 per cent positive, compared to 70 per cent in the same quarter for the previous year.

“We view all complaints as an opportunity to learn and improve, and note that communication is the area which most patients with a complaint are unhappy with.”

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